Overview on Molecular Biomarkers for Laryngeal Cancer: Looking for New Answers to an Old Problem

Laryngeal squamous cell cancer (LSCC) accounts for almost 25–30% of all head and neck squamous cell cancers and is clustered according to the affected districts, as this determines distinct tendency to recur and metastasize. A major role for numerous genetic alterations in driving the onset and progression of this neoplasm is emerging. However, major efforts are still required for the identification of molecular markers useful for both early diagnosis and prognostic definition of LSCC that is still characterized by significant morbidity and mortality. Non-coding RNAs appear the most promising as they circulate in all the biological fluids allowing liquid biopsy determination, as well as due to their quick and characteristic modulation useful for non-invasive detection and monitoring of cancer. Other critical aspects are related to recent progress in circulating tumor cells and DNA detection, in metastatic status and chemo-refractoriness prediction, and in the functional interaction of LSCC with chronic inflammation and innate immunity. We review all these aspects taking into account the progress of the technologies in the field of next generation sequencing

Chronic exposure to low dose of bisphenol A impacts on the first round of spermatogenesis via SIRT1 modulation.

Spermatogenesis depends on endocrine, autocrine and paracrine communications along the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonad axis. Bisphenol A (BPA), an estrogen-mimic endocrine disrupting chemical, is an environmental contaminant used to manufacture polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins with toxic effects for male reproduction. Here we investigated whether the chronic exposure to low BPA doses affects spermatogenesis through the modulation of SIRT1, a NAD+-dependent deacetylase involved in the progression of spermatogenesis, with outcomes on apoptosis, oxidative stress, metabolism and energy homeostasis. BPA exposure via placenta first, and lactation and drinking water later, affected the body weight gain in male offspring at 45 postnatal days and the first round of spermatogenesis, with impairment of blood testis barrier, reactive oxygen species production, DNA damage and decreased expression of SIRT1. The analysis of SIRT1 downstream molecular pathways revealed the increase of acetyl-p53Lys370, γH2AX foci, the decrease of oxidative stress defenses and the higher apoptotic rate in the testis of treated animals, with partial rescue at sex maturation. In conclusion, SIRT1 pathways disruption after BPA exposure can have serious consequences on the first round of spermatogenesis

Multi-systemic alterations by chronic exposure to a low dose of bisphenol a in drinking water: Effects on inflammation and nad+-dependent deacetylase sirtuin1 in lactating and weaned rats

Bisphenol A (BPA) is largely used as a monomer in some types of plastics. It accumulates in tissues and fluids and is able to bypass the placental barrier, affecting various organs and systems. Due to huge developmental processes, children, foetuses, and neonates could be more sensitive to BPA-induced toxicity. To investigate the multi-systemic effects of chronic exposure to a low BPA dose (100 µg/L), pregnant Wistar rats were exposed to BPA in drinking water during gestation and lactation. At weaning, newborn rats received the same treatments as dams until sex maturation. Free and conjugated BPA levels were measured in plasma and adipose tissue; the size of cerebral ventricles was analysed in the brain; morpho-functional and molecular analyses were carried out in the liver with a focus on the expression of inflammatory cytokines and Sirtuin 1 (Sirt1). Higher BPA levels were found in plasma and adipose tissue from BPA treated pups (17 PND) but not in weaned animals. Lateral cerebral ventricles were significantly enlarged in lactating and weaned BPA-exposed animals. In addition, apart from microvesicular steatosis, liver morphology did not exhibit any statistically significant difference for morphological signs of inflammation, hypertrophy, or macrovesicular steatosis, but the expression of inflammatory cytokines, Sirt1, its natural antisense long non-coding RNA (Sirt1-AS LncRNA) and histone deacetylase 1 (Hdac1) were affected in exposed animals. In conclusion, chronic exposure to a low BPA dose could increase the risk for disease in adult life as a consequence of higher BPA circulating levels and accumulation in adipose tissue during the neonatal period

How to Extract Useful Randomness from Unreliable Sources

For more than 30 years, cryptographers have been looking for public sources of uniform randomness in order to use them as a set-up to run appealing cryptographic protocols without relying on trusted third parties. Unfortunately, nowadays it is fair to assess that assuming the existence of physical phenomena producing public uniform randomness is far from reality. It is known that uniform randomness cannot be extracted from a single weak source. A well-studied way to overcome this is to consider several independent weak sources. However, this means we must trust the various sampling processes of weak randomness from physical processes. Motivated by the above state of affairs, this work considers a set-up where players can access multiple potential sources of weak randomness, several of which may be jointly corrupted by a computationally unbounded adversary. We introduce SHELA (Somewhere Honest Entropic Look Ahead) sources to model this situation. We show that there is no hope of extracting uniform randomness from a SHELA source. Instead, we focus on the task of Somewhere-Extraction (i.e., outputting several candidate strings, some of which are uniformly distributed -- yet we do not know which). We give explicit constructions of Somewhere-Extractors for SHELA sources with good parameters. Then, we present applications of the above somewhere-extractor where the public uniform randomness can be replaced by the output of such extraction from corruptible sources, greatly outperforming trivial solutions. The output of somewhere-extraction is also useful in other settings, such as a suitable source of random coins for many randomized algorithms. In another front, we comprehensively study the problem of Somewhere-Extraction from a weak source, resulting in a series of bounds. Our bounds highlight the fact that, in most regimes of parameters (including those relevant for applications), SHELA sources significantly outperform weak sources of comparable parameters both when it comes to the process of Somewhere-Extraction, or in the task of amplification of success probability in randomized algorithms. Moreover, the low quality of somewhere-extraction from weak sources excludes its use in various efficient applications

I santuari d'altura in Attica: continuità o trasformazioni?

Nella letteratura storica e archeologica l’attenzione all’emergere di luoghi di culto e allo sviluppo di pratiche cultuali è stata frequentemente connessa alle problematiche inerenti la nascita e la definizione della polis. È generalmente condiviso che il processo di definizione di uno spazio sacro in Grecia inizia a concretarsi verso la fine della cosiddetta Dark Age quando emergono in maniera sempre più consistente le prime testimonianze di altari, temène e aree sacre complementari a diversi culti. L’eterogeneità dei materiali rende difficile ipotizzare forme e funzioni di questi siti che, per l’Età del Ferro, secondo alcuni sarebbero connessi con la configurazione dei distretti in cui sono ubicati e funzionali agli insediamenti coevi; l’ipotesi è che questi santuari abbiano avuto una funzione di marcatori di spazio tra entità territoriali differenti, garanti di confini delle comunità in rapporto dialettico con i centri urbani fin dalle prime fasi del loro sviluppo. Tra i santuari noti si mettono a fuoco quelli definiti d’altura, luoghi di culto a cielo aperto o in cavità collocate lungo le pareti rocciose di rilievi montuosi. L’obiettivo del lavoro è proporre un’ulteriore prospettiva di ricerca che tenga conto delle considerazioni di F. de Polignac in merito alla ‟continuità ideale” dall’Età del Bronzo all’Età del Ferro di alcuni di questi contesti, cercando, nei limiti imposti da una documentazione spesso disarticolata e incompleta, di elaborare riflessioni comparative anche con altre regioni della Grecia, dall’età Minoica e Micenea fino all’Età Geometrica

I materiali di età storica

Nel corso del survey è stato recuperato un cospicuo numero di reperti utili ad aggregare le UU TT in siti e soprattutto scandirne la cronologia il più possibile per macro-fasi. Il corpus dei materiali è in massima parte costituito da frammenti ceramici, instrumenta e in proporzioni minori coroplastica, vetro, e oggetti metallici; a questi si aggiungono numerosi frammenti di elementi architettonici di dimensione variabile. Il contributo è essenzialmente incentrato sui frammenti ceramici ascritti alla categoria dei diagnostici, cioè quelli maggiormente significativi ai fini di un inquadramento cronologico. La ceramica è stata inizialmente classificata secondo una serie di parametri ad ampio spettro, seguendo la tradizionale suddivisione delle classi ceramiche definite su base autoptica: vernice nera, terra sigillata, pareti sottili, ceramica comune dipinta, acroma e grezza, anfore da trasporto, grandi contenitori, invetriata e lucerne. Un altro livello di analisi è stato focalizzato sulle forme vascolari al fine di distinguere, per quanto possibile, macro-categorie funzionali: ceramica da mensa, comune, da conservazione e da stoccaggio. La classe più attestata è quella di uso comune, seguita dalle anfore da trasporto, dalla vernice nera, dalla ceramica sigillata, dai grandi contenitori, mentre pochi sono i pezzi di ceramica a pareti sottili, invetriata e lucerne. Per le intrinseche difficoltà di inquadrare i vasi di uso comune, in particolare per la persistente omogeneità nel tempo del repertorio morfologico, si è posta particolare attenzione alla natura degli impasti eseguendo una campionatura delle argille sulla base dei frammenti morfologicamente e cronologicamente diagnosticati

Le immagini sui pinakes attici di VII e VI sec. a.C.: proiezioni di ritualità nel processo di definizione della polis

After the book of A K. Karoglou 2010 the corpus of attics paintings pinakes was organized according to the technical characteristics and decorative styles, furthermore the author provides new information and structured documents according to provenances and to figurative themes divided between mythological and genre scenes. In this work are proposed new considerations starting from the review of individual pinakes related to discovery context. The analysis shows not only how these objects are a clear attestation of cults but -together with other materials- as they constitute social components expressions that emerge in the gradual formation of the polis

Riflessioni su alcuni vasi a figure nere campani

La ceramica campana a figure nere di produzione campana in anni recenti è stata oggetto di numerosi studi destinati ad aggiornare e approfondire diverse tematiche ad essa legate, quali produzione, circolazione, sistemi decorativi e schemi iconografici. Questo contributo si concentra in particolare su un' anfora, attribuita al Gruppo della Festa Campestre, e si propone di individuare, attraverso una lettura iconografica e iconologica, i segni espressivi di un modello gentilizio che, come un marker culturale, continueranno ad essere utilizzati nell'immaginario regionale anche nelle produzioni figurate successive, in particolare nella pittura funeraria

Le raffigurazioni delle Sirene sulla ceramica greca e italiota

Il contributo propone lo sviluppo diacronico delle raffigurazioni delle Sirene in ambito greco e magnogreco, attraverso un percorso iconografico e iconologico delle rappresentazioni